Happy belated Halloween!  We hope everyone had a fun and safe time on Thursday!  We had a great time celebrating Halloween at the center.  Here's a peek at what we did:

First, we finished reading It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall.  For our pumpkin theme, we had started reading this story, which is about children who grow a pumpkin patch.  Last week, we finished the story and found out what they did with all those pumpkins.  We continued to practice new vocabulary words we had learned, such as vine, seed, andwheelbarrow.  We also learned some new words, including jack-o-lantern, costume, and trick-or-treating!  Everyone had fun predicting what would happen next in the book and talking about their own experiences with carving pumpkins and dressing up in costumes.

After we finished the story, we "carved" our very own pumpkins!  This is a great craft to teach actions, vocabulary, body parts, requesting help, and combining several words into a phrase.  We also worked on "p" sounds ("pumpkin", "pulp"), "s" sounds ("scoop", "seeds"), and "k" sounds ("cut"). 

Afterward, we worked on sequencing skills by putting pictures of the pumpkin-carving process in order and talking about each step in the sequence.  We glued the pictures onto notecards to make a book that each child could take home.

Interested in re-creating this activity at home?  Follow the instructions below!

Materials

Craft pumpkin (can be found at Michael's or Target)

Box cutter/sharp knife

Yellow yarn or strips of paper

Dried pumpkin seeds

Plastic spoon and knife

Battery-operated candle

Instructions

1. Have an adult use the box cutter to carve the craft pumpkin beforehand.
2. Add seeds and yellow yarn for pulp to the inside of the pumpkin, and then reassemble it.
3. Allow your child to use a plastic knife to "cut out" the top of the pumpkin.
4. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds and "pulp".
5. Use the plastic knife to "cut out" the rest of the pumpkin parts.
6. Turn on the battery-operated candle and place inside, then put the top back on the pumpkin.

We hope you've enjoyed reading about our speech and language adventures!  Don't forget to share this post on Facebook and visit our website (www.slpcenter.com) for more information!